1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of forming a printed circuit board with a connector, and an electric junction box having the printed circuit board for a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a connector for a printed circuit board has been configured by press-fitting or inserting and forming terminals, in advance, into a bottom surface of a connector housing as an integral formation. Then, the connector housing into which the terminals are fixed is mounted on the printed circuit board. At this time, the terminals fixed into the connector housing are precisely aligned with and inserted into terminal holes on the printed circuit board, by positioning and mounting the connector housing on the printed circuit board. Then, the terminals inserted into the terminal hoes are fixed by soldering, press-fitting, or the like.
As shown in FIG. 10, Japanese patent laid-open publication 2005-129275 illustrates the following. Press-fit terminals 101 are attached to a connector housing 100 in advance. When the connector housing 100 is mounted on a printed circuit board 102, projections 100a provided on a bottom surface of the connector housing 100 are inserted into insertion holes 102a of the printed circuit board 102, for positioning. The press-fit terminals 101 are then positioned and inserted into terminal holes of the printed circuit board 102, for press-fit connection.
However, factors such as configuration of the connector to be mounted on the printed circuit board, position of the connector, and the shape of an upper case and a lower case of the electric junction box do not always allow the terminals to be fixed to the connector housing in advance as illustrated in the prior art. In such a case, the terminals are sometimes fixed on the printed circuit board in a projecting manner before mounting the connector housing on the printed circuit board.
When the connector housing needs to be positioned and attached to the terminals that are already projecting from the printed circuit board, as in the situation above, the terminals projecting from the printed circuit board are not stable because of the lack of fixed positioning. Therefore, when attaching the connector housing, the terminal receptacles at the connector housing side and the terminals are often misaligned. Especially, before the printed circuit board is attached within the electric junction box, the connector housing is only placed on the printed circuit board, but not fixedly attached. Therefore, during the assembly within the electric junction box, in a case where the connector housing needs to be fixed to the printed circuit board when the case is fitted, to great a load may be applied to the terminals when the connector housing is fixed by the case.